By Christian Park-Gastelum, Sept. 10, 2024
Cal Poly Pomona’s Associated Students Inc discussed several clubs’ misuse of funds in it’s second Board of Directors meeting Sept. 5.
ASI and student organizations at CPP were subjected to an audit. ASI had a successful audit whereas CPP’s student organization’s audit had findings of misused funds.
The student organizations that were audited faltered in meeting CSU and CPP’s policies, such as having proper bylaw language for their organization and unaccounted for transactions, causing the Bronco Leadership Center to carefully follow measures that comply with the audit.
As a result, 145 clubs were denied for not being fully compliant in their bylaws, according to Jason Lu, BLC director.
Not all clubs’ bylaws were denied based off a misuse of funds. Other reasons for denial included not having additional financial policy language, not changing the name of the BLC (Formerly Student Engagement Leadership and Success) or not adding inclusive language.
“We went through an eight-or-nine-month audit last year on student organizations; we did not do well,” said ASI University Adviser Christina Gonzales. “We were not meeting CSU policies, our own policies, and so we had to go back. That’s why the bylaws have to be in compliance with the audit.”
Lu offered his support to the board during the meeting and explained with a team of four full-time staff members, registration is a manual process. It takes time to review and verify the training needed by the members, Lu said. .
Gonzales stated CPP President Soraya M. Coley called for the audit on student organizations, prompting for an updated report on the matter in a couple of weeks.
“She called the audit because there were several student organizations that had misused funds and have misallocated and some other things — and not a little bit of money but a lot,” Gonzalez said. “And that was very concerning for her, so she called the audit, which then had a lot of other findings. So I just want you to know that we’re trying to be in compliance with CSU policies that we hadn’t necessarily been keeping up on.”
According to Lu, the 145 clubs that were denied were given reasoning for rejection, whereas 165 clubs were approved. Most issues are due to the bylaw language clubs not fulfilling requirements.
Lu addressed that additional review of the club’s bylaws after the club’s audits caused the BLC to take more time for approval of other clubs, but they must be thorough to be the most transparent.
Though student organization audits did not go well, CPP’s ASI had a successful audit, as their significant transactions were accounted for by the audit firm Aldrich CPA’s + Advisors.
ASI is a non-profit organization and is required by California State University policies, and the state, to have an annual audit performed.
Other non-profit entities across the 23 CSU campuses must go through the audit process as results are compiled into a system-wide report and published for public viewing.
According to Andy Maffia, a partner with Aldrich CPA’s + Advisors, the ASI management team was in full compliance and had a successful audit as nothing unusual was found.
“Everything went great with the audit,” Maffia said. “We will be rendering what we call an ‘unmodified opinion,’ and that means we didn’t have to modify the report in any way. It’s a clean opinion, and this is the best opinion.”
The audit firm focused only on the significant areas of ASI’s financial statement, otherwise known as a risk-based audit. It did not look at every transaction made.
As of June 2024, ASI has $51 million in total assets, $48 million of which were in investments, according to Maffia. It is not immediately known what investments ASI has made.
ASI Vice President Megan Shadrick motioned to move the discussion item of the audit report into an action item. The BOD approved the audit report as presented Sept. 5.
The audit reports are public information and can be viewed online or requested.
Along with the approval of the audit report, the board members appointed Arya Mehrazarin, a mechanical engineer student, as officer of internal affairs. He is the final cabinet member to be appointed.
“This leadership opportunity, learning how student government works and picking up some more responsibilities was really exciting for me, and when I found out that I was appointed, it really brought me excitement and made me look interested to what will happen in the future,” Mehrazarin said.
Cabinet members consist of five board members — ASI’s president, vice president, attorney general, senator pro tempore and treasure — and five appointees from the board.
After applicants for the cabinet positions interviewed with the ASI president and vice President, five appointed cabinet members are then chosen and presented to the board, consisting of three officers and two secretaries.
The appointed cabinet members’ primary role is to ensure the ASI’s president and vice president’s action plan is operating, while they also tend to their individual position obligations.
“There are a couple of positions that we added, for example, officer of communication, which most CSU schools have that we don’t, and we needed that person because the president and I can get very busy with meetings and things that we have to travel for, so having somebody in our cabinet to deal with our communication, our marketing, helps a lot,” Shadrick said. “So they’re really there to just ensure that our plans are accomplished throughout the year.”
ASI President Cade Wheeler and Vice President Megan Shadrick noted their action plan for the school year will be presented at the next BOD meeting, Sept. 19, for the senators to vote.
BOD meetings are available to the public. Visitors are welcomed in person and a Zoom link is available on ASI’s website for virtual viewers.
“I first and foremost just wanted to tell people that their voices and opinions matter,” Shadrick said. “We really do listen. Anyone can come into mine and Cade’s office and talk to us. They can talk to their senators. We’re willing to help any student because it does not matter who it is; it’s our job to be there for them.”
An update was made to this story to clarify that not all 145 clubs were denied because of misuse of funds.
Feature Image Courtesy of Christian Park-Gastelum